Dodgers’ Hitting Returns : Baseball: Strawberry’s homer, Davis’ four hits and Butler’s three-run triple help beat Pirates, 7-4.

Eleven games after the Dodgers opened their season, Darryl Strawberry opened his Friday night with a towering two-run home run to right field in the fifth inning to help lift the Dodgers to a 7-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates before a crowd of 39,652 at Dodger Stadium.

Strawberry’s homer came at 8:57 p.m., in his 34th at-bat, on a 1-0 pitch thrown by Pirate knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

It came on the same night Strawberry was lustily booed after stranding two runners in the third inning.

It came just when the Dodgers needed it, with his team locked in a 1-1 tie and Manager Tom Lasorda running out of lineup changes. Friday, he moved Eric Davis to the second spot in the batting order.

Strawberry’s homer, which also accounted for his first two runs batted in of the season, was his first since May 12, 1992. It seemed to jump-start the Dodger bats, supporting the popular theory that as Darryl goes, so go the Dodgers.

Strawberry entered the game batting .129, lower than the averages of both starting pitchers. With two hits, he raised his average to .171.

“It felt great,” Strawberry said of his home run. “It was one of my usual homers. That one was hit, it wasn’t a cheapie.

Of the booing, Strawberry said: “The fans don’t want to see me do bad. Booing just shows that they don’t want you to do bad. It’s part of what the game is about. I don’t mind getting booed. I get booed everywhere I go.”

Davis was hitting .167, but he raised that to .244 with four hits, tying a career high.

The Dodgers followed their two-run fifth with a four-run sixth inning, their biggest outburst of the season, three runs coming on Brett Butler’s bases-clearing triple.

Orel Hershiser pitched six strong innings and improved his record to 2-1.

He threw 84 pitches and left with a 7-2 lead, hoping his paper-thin bullpen could protect it.

It wasn’t a cinch. Aided by a Jose Offerman error, the Pirates scored two runs off Roger McDowell in the seventh, but the Dodgers held on.

Hershiser, who might have tired after throwing 130 pitches in his last outing, gave up two earned runs and six hits while striking out three and walking one.

Jim Gott pitched a scoreless ninth inning to earn his second save as the Dodgers picked up their first home victory of the season.

It was suggested that Tom Candiotti might prepare the Dodgers for Wakefield (1-2) by pitching pregame batting practice.

“That’s stupid,” Candiotti said. “Dumb. Because no two knuckleballers are the same. Your hitters are only going to get frustrated before the game. You can’t change their strokes, no way.”

Candiotti said Dodger batters were on their own against Wakefield.

“If he’s on, and throwing strikes, there’s not much you can do about it,” Candiotti said. “If he’s not on, that’s when you get him.”

The Dodgers got him. Wakefield gave up 13 hits and seven earned runs in six innings. He walked two and struck out one.

Of Strawberry’s homer, he said: “The ball was up. When you get a knuckleball up and they hit it square, the ball is going to go a long way.”

The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the third but left wondering about all the runs they didn’t get.

They opened with consecutive singles to left field by Butler, Davis and Mike Piazza, Butler scoring on Piazza’s hit.

But with no one out, one run in and two runners aboard, the inning fluttered to a close.

Strawberry barely missed two RBIs with a shot down the right-field line that went foul by inches.

Then he popped up to second.

Then Eric Karros flied out to left.

Then Tim Wallach popped to first.

The Pirates tied the score in the fifth on an inside-the-park home run by second baseman Carlos Garcia, who lofted a 1-0 pitch over the head of Butler in center and didn’t stop running until he had beaten Jody Reed’s relay to the plate.